Reagan Technologies

 

 

 

Mike Reagan and his brother, Marc, were justifiably proud of their company. What they began
as a paint distributor some forty years ago, fresh out of college, had grown into one of the
largest specialty painting contractors in the U.S., and likely the world. What their company does
is paint ships, which may not sound difficult, but when one considers that every surface on a
ship, including some in some very tight places, has to be painted and repainted over time, it
becomes easy to see that your average painter wouldn’t be able to do the job. In fact, the
company has the best safety record and is known for developing new, safer methods for ship
painting. As a result, the company employed 1,200 people, 1,100 of whom were highly trained
specialists in marine painting. Now, as Mike just turned seventy and Marc wasn’t far behind,
they were discussing the company’s future.
“We need to find another business,” Mike was telling Marc over coffee one morning.
“Something that will flourish when times are not so good for shipbuilding. And we need to find
it quickly so we can help get it going before we turn this company over to Mike Junior and
Addie.” Addie is Marc’s daughter, and the only one of his children who had shown an interest in
the family business. She worked with her dad in taking care of the back office functions
(accounting, finance, IT, etc.) while Mike Junior worked with his dad to oversee the painting
operations.
One truth about shipbuilding is that the industry is highly cyclical—governments don’t build
navies during peace, for example. Another truth about shipbuilding is that there is no sales
force, because all jobs are put out for bid. Government jobs don’t require a salesperson, just a
good proposal, and Reagan Technologies had a solid proposal-writing team. But even with that
strong team, the company’s revenue would plummet when the U.S. Navy wasn’t building new
ships.
Marc replied, “I think I have an idea. I got a call last week from Shore Insulation and
Fireproofing. They want to rent our scaffolds from us on the U.S.S. Bankston job when they do
the insulation. And they’re not the only ones. I’ve had several calls from companies in the area
asking if we rent scaffolding. There’s a lot of companies in construction, maintenance, and
building repair that rent scaffolding.”
Mike had a quizzical look on his face as he said, “But we don’t know anything about that
business.”
“We know how to put up and take down scaffolding safely, and safety is a big issue. With our
safety record, we should be able to win a lot of business,” Marc responded. “Plus, this should
be relatively steady income, in addition to the painting business. With our locations in the
shipyards all across the Gulf and up and down the east coast, we should be able to serve just
about anything east of the Mississippi River.”
“Yeah, but how do we get the business? We’ll need salespeople because right now, you and I
are the only ones in this company with sales experience, and I don’t have time for that!”
QUESTIONS:
1. So far, Reagan Technologies has had neither a marketing department nor a sales force.
Which should come first and why?
2. What would marketing do for the new division? What would its role be, and what
would you consider success for marketing?
3. What type of sales position would they need? Justify your choice.
4. If they were short on capital and wanted to outsource sales, could they? What would
stop a scaffolding manufacturer from outsourcing in a similar fashion and then beat
them on price?

Sample Solution

is paper I will talk about the associations between initiative, inspiration and collaboration hypotheses, how they interface with training in associations and their limits, offering arrangements where difficulties emerge. The exposition means to reach determinations on the reasonableness of Fiedler’s Contingency Theory of Leadership, Tuckman’s Model of Group Development, Belbin’s Team Theory, and Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory practically speaking, and how intricacies like power and impact shape how they can be applied to best suit what is happening a pioneer faces.

Authority Contingency based speculations of initiative propose that there is no right or most effective way to lead a gathering, or association, because of the huge number of imperatives on a circumstance (Flinsch-Rodriguez, 2019). Fiedler, in his Contingency Theory of Leadership (Fiedler, 1967), recommends that the viability of a gathering is subject to the initiative styles of the pioneer and their favourability to everything going on. A large part of the hypothesis is laid out around the most un-favored associate scale (LPC). The LPC intends to evaluate a potential chiefs way to deal with an errand on a size of relationship persuaded to task inspired, where the pioneer fits on the scale permits what is happening to be found, and hence permits the ID of reasonable pioneers for undertakings. The favourableness of the present circumstance relies upon three qualities: pioneer part relations, the help and trust the pioneer as from the gathering; task structure, the clearness of the undertaking to the pioneer; and positional power, the power the pioneer needs to survey a gatherings execution and give prizes and disciplines (Fiedler, 1967). On the off chance that the pioneers approach matches what is expected from going on, achievement is anticipated for the gathering. Fiedler’s possibility model offers an extremely grave categorisation of administration, obviously characterizing which circumstances endlessly won’t bring about progress for a likely pioneer. At the senior administration level of a hierarchal design inside an association the hypothesis can be applied uninhibitedly, first and foremost because of the straightforwardness at which people can be supplanted on the off chance that their LPC score doesn’t match that expected of everything going on (Pettinger, 2007). Furthermore, and above all, is to guarantee that the senior administration are ideally suited to effectively lead the association. Notwithstanding, further down the ordered progression Fielder’s possibility hypothesis starts to hold considerably less significance, it becomes illogical according to a hierarchical viewpoint because of the quantity of individuals at this degree of initiative. The planned operations of coordinating the pioneer with their most un-favored colleague is difficult to reliably accomplish, so a more continuum based approach is required. Figure 1: Chelladurai’s Multi-Dimensional Model of Leadership (Miller and Cronin, 2012)

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